Buddy Tim raved about Hui Wei prawn noodle and lor mee at Toa Payoh Blk 177 coffee shop for two days in a row. He's normally not so effusive, so I was really curious to try them 😃
Impromptu jio-ed (invited) Tim and Aaron to go down to check out Tim's latest discovery.
Hui Wei just opened a couple of months ago, so it is still relatively quiet. But, there was a steady stream of customers. Hui Wei is quietly building up its following. (This is actually Hui Wei's third outlet. The first stall is in Mei Ling hawker centre. The second was in Woodlands but had closed.)
Hui Wei serves just two dishes - prawn mee (soup or dry) and lor mee.
I went ahead to order the prawn mee dry (saving the lor mee for when Tim and Aaron arrive).
Bumped into Francis another foodie buddy. He is already a Hui Wei fan and have been here a few times already 😃
The mound of noodles and sauce was nearly invisible under a blanket of pork slices, fish cake slices, prawn and fried shallot.
I appreciate it that Hui Wei fry their own shallots which were crisp and richly aromatic. (On the other hand, when I see stalls use factory fried shallot, I will "sian half already" [Singlish for "lose interest"] as they are like wood chippings, dry, tasteless and have no aroma.)
Dry noodles is mostly about the sauce. I like Hui Wei's sauce - savoury, spicy, lardy and aromatic. They gave generous amounts of it, so the noodles were greasy, slurpy and tasty. Francis likes the sauce. Me too.
One of Hui Wei's signatures is their thin blanched pork slices. Francis love this and ordered extra pieces.
I like it too but only the pieces with fat which makes the slices more juicy and tastes sweeter. However, the totally lean slices were a bit dry and had little flavour.
I like the tender-soft flavoursome fish cake slices. The prawns were alright too. More than good enough for what we paid.
The prawn broth was good with crustacean umami but maybe today they were slightly heavy handed with sugar as it was a little too sweet for me.
Francis like it hot. He dusted his prawn mee with chili powder.
Overall, for traditional no frills prawn mee, I think this is a good one and good value for the price too - $4.50 and $5.50.
When Tim and Aaron got here, it's round two time to try out Hui Wei's lor mee 😃
It's the same fish cake and pork slices with noodles but in a thick gooey sauce or lor.
Hui Wei let us help ourselves to the vinegar, soy sauce, cut chili, minced garlic, sambal and chopped coriander, so we can have as much kick as we can take 😃
The savoury lor had relatively mild flavours, so you have to "kar kar" (Singlish for "don't hold back") let go (let loose) the vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, chili, sambal and coriander on your noodles 😃
The fried fish nuggets looked irresistibly pretty, so I ordered extra 😬 Very well fried, evenly golden brown.
Love the crisp light batter but am not really a fan of dory fish which is too soft for me and had little flavour. Maybe a bit more savouriness and a little peppery heat might do the trick for me 😬
Toa Payoh is my hometown. I lived here till I was 17. Toa Payoh has changed a lot since, with many more buildings sprouting up in once open spaces where children played football (Singapore once had a thriving kicking football culture). Blk 177 was here since the 1970s. The only shop I could remember here was a book shop in the middle of the row. I still have a couple of the books I bought from the shop, though the shop is no longer there.
I feel the broth is much better at 1pm.
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